Soaked with the Sky

Soaked with the Sky
2023
Mokuhanga - Japanese watercolour woodblock
9 passes,
5 colours,
3 blocks

image size  485 x 360 mm

paper size -  600 x 460 mm

Artwork is sold unframed

Creating these prints was an act of joy and discovery for me, honing my Mokuhanga print skills with beautiful and subtle results. The works are created on a range of paper from Japan called Echizen Hanga, Hankusa. This has been a real game changer in that the washi responds so beautifully to the softest of pigment and impressions, allowing me to create evocative gradients of colour in nine colour layers.

Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,
what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again
in a new way
on the earth!
That’s what it said
as it dropped,
smelling of iron,
and vanished
like a dream of the ocean
into the branches
and the grass below.

- excerpt from a poem by Mary Oliver titled 'Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me.'

Mary Oliver's poetry oftentimes feels written for my art practice in that her gentle reflections on natural elements become philosophical in the softest of ways. Observation, consideration and imagination - the three keys elements, in my humble opinion.